mobile payments

Google Pay is aiming at becoming a true virtual wallet by gathering payment and loyalty cards in a single application. Since last year, commuters in Las Vegas, Portland, and the West Midlands have also been able to save their transit tickets in their phones, allowing them to leave their wallets at home. Melburnians, and more generally Victorians, can also use their handsets as their transportation pass now, as Google Pay just added support for Myki, the region's transit card — not the password manager we reviewed.

Gather 'round folks, Tez celebration time! Google's mobile payment solution for India, formerly known as Tez and later rebranded to Pay, has reached an important milestone in its software life: 100 million installs on the Play Store. This is usually when developers bring out the big cake and everyone wishes them zero bugs and 100% positive reviews for the months to come.

Google is always keen to encourage more people to use its contactless payment service, which often means enticing promotions for us to make the most of. The latest such opportunity in the UK offers up to £50 in Google Play credit or the chance to win a Google Home Mini.

Google Pay may first and foremost be a platform for transferring money, whether that's in the form of making mobile payments with NFC on our phones, buying things online, or just sending cash to friends or family, but that's just one component of its broader capabilities. In addition to storing loyalty cards or coupons, we've slowly been seeing support grow for transit tickets, letting users access fare passes right on their phones. This week we're getting some long-overdue growth in that area, with support arriving for a third transit provider.

The United States' most popular mobile payments platform, Starbucks, has always been useful for those who frequent the chain. With this week's update v5, though, it's getting considerably nicer to use, with easier access to the barcode screen and the ability to remember your order as you navigate the app.

Google Pay has come a long way in the last few years, with tons of banks and financial institutions now supported in many countries. An integration with PayPal was also announced last year, giving users even greater options, but it's only been available in the US. If you live in Germany, you'll be pleased to hear it's now rolling out to you too.

Google Pay's expansion across the world continues in Italy. Seven banks are available from the outset, so if you're a member of one of them, just add your Maestro, Mastercard, or Visa card to the app and you're good to go.

One of the best low-key benefits of Samsung's Galaxy flagships is Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) payments, which allow you to use your phone for contactless payments at most credit card readers, as opposed to the NFC-based payments used by other digital wallets that require an explicitly compatible terminal. Samsung and Chase are now teaming up to bring that MST convenience to the Chase Pay app. Of course, a Chase card could be used for MST Payments via Samsung Pay before, but now the Chase Pay app gets that same direct convenience.